Melbourne

Melbourne Inner-City

Marginal Greens 5.9%v ALP

MP

Adam Bandt (Green) since gaining this seat from Labor at the 2010 election.

Profile

A compact inner city electorate of 46 sq.km covering the area south of Maribyrnong Road and Park Street, and between the Yarra River, Maribyrnong River and Merri Creek. The electorate includes the Melbourne CBD, Docklands, Richmond, Collingwood, Carlton, Fitzroy, North Melbourne and Flemington. (Map)

Redistribution

Loses the area around Clifton Hill to Batman and parts of Fitzroy North to Wills. In a two-party preferred contest this would see Labor's margin slip from 23.3% to 22.8%. However the Greens won Melbourne at the 2010 election with a margin of 6.0% over Labor, a margin that would be largely unchanged on the new boundaries.

Background

The electorate of Melbourne has existed since Federation and was held by Labor continuously from 1904 until the 2010 election. Former Labor members include Bill Maloney 1904-1940, Arthur Calwell 1940-1972, Ted Innes 1972-1983, Gerry Hand 1983-1993 and Lindsay Tanner 1993-2010.

Support for the Greens rose through the first decade of the twenty first century, polling 15.7% in 2001, 19.0% in 2004, 22.8% and finishing second after preferences in 2007, and 36.2% and achieving victory on Liberal preferences in 2010, Adam Bandt becoming the first Green to win a seat in the House of Representatives at a general election. Green Michael Organ had previously won Cunningham at a by-election in 2002.

Campaign Update

The Liberal Party has announced that it will recommend preferences to the Labor Party ahead of the Greens in all seats, a reversal of its position in 2010. Then the 80% of Liberal preferences flowing to the Greens elected Adam Bandt, but when the Liberal Party reversed its preference decision at the Victorian state election in November 2010, preferences flowed only 34% to the Greens. Assuming the Liberal Party first preference vote remains around the same as in 2010, Bandt will need to poll above 40% on first preferences to win in 2013, meaning he must increase his first preference support at the expense of Labor by about 4%.

A Reachtel poll conducted for Fairfax Media on 15 August reported first preferences of Labor 33.8%, Greens 33.5% and Liberal 22.6%. On those figures Labor's Cath Bowtell would easily win the seat on Liberal preferences.

2011 Census Profile

Melbourne is a classic inner city electorate. It has the nation's second lowest proportion of children aged 0-4 (4.7%) and aged 5-14 (5.7%) but the highest aged 15-24 (20.4%), related to the electorate also having the highest proportion of University students (18.3%). It has the nation's fifth highest proportion of working aged residents 25-64 (61.0%) and at the 30 has the second lowest median age of any electorate. It is the nation's most mobile electorate, with 52.4% having moved address in the last five years, at 58.0% it has the highest rate of rental dwellings, the fourth lowest proportion of owned dwellings (17.8%), the lowest proportion of dwellings being purchased (21.3%) and at 49.3% the fourth highest proportion of flats. It has the lowest proportion of Christian residents (36.9%) and the highest with no religion (35.1%). The electorate's family types reflect this age and residence profile, having the nation's second lowest proportion of couples with dependent children (24.8%), the third highest proportion of couples with no children (50.5%), the fourth highest proportion of single person dwellings (22.1%), the second lowest proportion of children attending school (6.1%) and the second highest rate of female participation in the workforce (49.1%). It has the nation's lowest proportion of residents who finished school in year 10 or earlier (9.7%), and the fourth highest proportion of University educated residents (60.3%).

Past Electoral Boundaries

2013 Ballot Paper (16 Candidates)

Candidate Name

Party

MAIN, Anthony

-

ARMISTEAD, Sean

Liberal

BORLAND, Kate

Independent

WALKER, Noelle

Family First Party

BANDT, Adam

The Greens

BOWTELL, Cath

Australian Labor Party

VRBNJAK, Martin

Palmer United Party

BAYLISS, Michael

Stable Population Party

MURPHY, Michael

DLP Democratic Labour

WALSHE, Nyree

Animal Justice Party

DAVIDSON, Josh

Bullet Train For Australia

KHOO, Joyce Mei Lin

Rise Up Australia Party

WILDING, Royston

Secular Party of Australia

MANGISI, James

Sex Party

KIRKMAN, Frazer

Independent

CUMMINS, Paul

Australian Independents

Candidates

Anthony Main

Main is a former City of Yarra Councillor (2010-2012) and Secretary of the UNITE union. He is a candidate of the unregistered Socialist Party.

Sean Armistead

Liberal

Armistead was born in Darwin and moved to Melbourne with his family when he was eight. He attended school in Frankston before completing a Bachelor of Commerce at Melbourne University. While there he made history by becoming the universitys first elected Indigenous member of the Student Representative Council. Sean began his career at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as a policy officer and has also worked for several large corporations. He currently works as the Manager of the Indigenous Employment Program for Crown Melbourne.

Noelle Walker

Family First Party

Walker is a retired Personal Assistant and formerly worked for the Managing Partner of a worldwide chartered accounting firm. Her time now is spent working with properties along with caring for her elderly dad, being actively involved in a local community group, travelling, interior decorating, watercolour painting and spending time with family and friends.

Adam Bandt

The Greens

Bandt worked as an industrial and public interest lawyer for the decade before his election to Parliament in 2010. He represented workers and their unions while a partner at Slater and Gordon, holding a position with the firm previously held by Julia Gillard. He represented construction workers before the Cole Building Industry Royal Commission, represented unions and workers during the Ansett insolvency, and states that he was involved in prosecuting some of Australia's biggest clothing companies for breaches of laws designed to prevent the exploitation of outworkers. Bandt finished second in this seat in 2007, and also finished second in the 2009 Melbourne Lord Mayoral election. Bandt describes himself as a book nerd and live music fan and at the time of his election was completing a PhD in Law and Politics at Monash University. He became Greens Deputy Leader after Bob Brown's departure from Parliament.

Cath Bowtell

Australian Labor Party

Bowtell has lived in the electorate for more than two decades.is a former ACTU senior industrial officer. She worked for the ACTU for 15 years and was instrumental in the union campaign against WorkChoices, before leaving in early 2010 for a senior position at WorkSafe. The late resignation of Lindsay Tanner saw Bowtell drafted in as Labor candidate for Melbourne, but she could do little to prevent the Greens winning the seat. Bowtell has since spent two years as Chief Executive of AGEST Super, an industry super fund, and now returns to re-contest Melbourne.

Martin Vrbnjak

Michael Bayliss

Michael Murphy

Royston Wilding

Secular Party of Australia

Since becoming a self-funded retiree, Wilding has travelled extensively, lived in third-world countries and become involved in a number of social and environmental programs overseas and in Australia. He has a background in sales and marketing management in manufacturing engineering, and delivered many technical papers in Australia and abroad.

James Mangisi

Frazer Kirkman

Independent

Kirkman is a professional happiness coach. He has taught laughter, relaxation, meditation, compassion and habit change for more than half his life. He holds a bachelor of cognitive science from Flinders University and has taught in the sciences, mathematics, biology and computing and has a dedication to logic and scepticism.